Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention relates in general to modern communication format and content. More particularly, the field of the invention relates to a system and method for embedding and decoding emotive content within textual communication.
Emotional content is basic to most human interaction. Emotions are a powerful driving force in communication. Emotions happen without our conscious thought and very often affect our way of thinking and acting. They are held by some to be the root cause of almost all action. In communicating with each other, we display our emotions unconsciously, without being aware of their communicative nature. Non-verbal communication is an example of our true feelings manifesting themselves with or without our conscious thought. Non-verbal communication can be louder and convey more meaning than our verbal communication. Much of our conversation is aimed at either describing our feelings or creating desired feelings in the receiver. What is missing from text communication, which is proliferating with a myriad of new computer applications, is the ability to convey emotion. What is needed is a way to clarify the emotional content of text and convey emotion in a computer application.
Artificial Intelligence and its branch “Natural Language” were an attempt two decades ago to build parsers that were English grammar based. A few products were generated that provided “English” interfaces to a variety of computer applications. The hope was that communication with computers would become simplified and easy enough for the common non-computer literate person to more easily access and use the computer. These all failed to bring the desired results. The reasons are not well understood. Interfaces have improved in the last decade to the current point and click Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) provided by MS Windows, Macintosh OS and others. We are still hard at work looking at how to interface with machines and technology.
There is a dissimilarity in the way a computer and the human mind work, which is why “friendly” interfaces have been so hard to design and so long in coming. The interfaces thus far have been designed from the computer standpoint so that data stored in various forms can be sorted and retrieved.
While the computer can retrieve only that which previously has been submitted, the human mind can retrieve whole sentences, but also can reconstruct them as it pleases, gild the words with emotion and play back the words with lyrical sound and oratorical fury, calling into service the entire body to support the words. It can cause the hands and arms to provide appropriate gestures, the face to take on the correct expression, the eyes to gleam in sync with the message being delivered and it can to this all on the fly, automatically.
Thus, the presentation of the information frequently can be more important than the actual substance of the information. It is the presentation that focuses and maintains our attention. TV commercials attempt to draw immediate attention through the increase in sound volume, a cheap mechanism to obtain user attention. It is the fluctuation of sound volume and intensity, tone of voice, personal quirks and gesturers, characteristic pauses or speaker delivery techniques and antics that keep us absorbed and interested in media content. These are all methods by which we impart emotive content. However, written interfaces today are conspicuously devoid of emotional content. Yet there is a real need and even an attempt by users to embed the emotions into their textual messages. Users react positively when they receive even token emotional content back in messages, even in its current weak attempts to transmit an emotional message. Each of us has seen a  inside text to demark an attempt to jest or joke. An exclamation mark! or BOLD letters to represent enthusiasm or danger. Communication in complete grammatically correct sentence structure does not maximize information flow. Information flow is maximized when it makes an impact on users. This can come in fits and starts, soft and loud, by head scratching and pausing, iambic rhythm, cadence or tempo. These are just some of the methods we use to convey emotion. It is this transmission of emotional content that is largely missing from written communication.
Most of us at one time or another have toiled trying to teach a child something that we thought was important and were frustrated when the child lost interest and turned off and quit. Later, much to our amazement, the child was effortlessly using this knowledge as if it were second nature. We may have learned that a “friend showed me how to do it.” Why is that and how did it happen we may ask. The answer is that a friend imparted that knowledge, albeit probably much less precisely than you may have, in a way much less threatening to the child, perhaps more interesting but in all cases more efficient than you could have. Essentially this learning took place via a more “friendly, hence more efficient,” user interface.
Warning labels are another example of this phenomenon. Label makers have found that children are much more likely to understand a face with a frown or scowl on a label to depict danger or harmful if swallowed, than a small paragraph of text explaining in simple language, the repercussions of tasting contents within. The warning face glyph has a much more powerful communication mechanism that forces the “reader”, in this case most likely a non-literate, to understand in no uncertain terms, the single most important part of the message. That message is in the form of an emotional expression portending something bad. What is needed is a way to embed emotive content into written communication so that even children can understand. Since emotions are used before even language, even children should understand at least the emotive content of messages. Such understanding by a child could function as a test of a system for conveying emotion.
Teaching and learning are still an art. Tolstoy's firm belief was that art is the transmission of feelings. The face glyph is an art form, but the average person has no tools with which to impart or use this art in their written messages, which could aid in the transmission of emotions. What is needed are ways to transmit our feelings, perhaps in art form, in our written word.
Information Overload
The term information overload is currently used when referring to textual information, which inundates us and immerses us in more text than people typically can read in a day. Text language must be learned, parsed, understood and stored. What is needed is a way to assimilate messages quicker and more clearly ascertain their intent. Messages with evident emotive content would by their more visual nature be “read” much faster, assimilated quicker. Readers could understand the full message quicker, as a glance would sometimes be enough to comprehend the emotive content in a simplified form, the largest component and many times the most important component in many written communications. People don't read as fast as they see. Letters must be comprehended. Pictures, scenes and colors are much more quickly absorbed and our emotions receive input mostly from other than written word sources. In any event, effective communications appeal to our emotions and these do not come from letters and words. A way needs to be developed which will maximize information throughput.
It has been said that mathematics is the universal language. This may be the case in the sense that mathematics throughout the world uses international symbols that transcend all borders. It is said English is the language of the Internet. However, one must study and learn the English language. The true universal language is the language of the heart, emotions. What is needed is a universal way to communicate emotion in written word, which will transcend language barriers. Emotions with some small cultural differences use commonly accepted methods and symbols to carry emotive content. Most of these come in the form of gestures and facial expressions. What is needed is a way to use these gestures and symbols to transcend language barriers, so that the universally accepted symbols and methods can be used as they are in the field of mathematics, to be understood by many people of different languages.
Comfort Level
Interfaces have to be learned, they are not natural. “Natural Language” was unnatural to most people. Most people have an aversion to technology because they are not comfortable with the interface or the forced, designed way in which they must interact with a technology. Interfaces can make or break an otherwise very good and useful technology. The design of any good interface starts with understanding of the end user and how best he would like to interact with a technology. This begins with the attempt to ease the learning of the functionality of the technology and how to interact with it. Thus the more comfortable a user is with the interface, the quicker the user can learn to use the technology and be proficient—not just proficient, but to enjoy, obtain satisfaction from and master. Where there is the emotional content of encouragement, commiseration, laughter and pleasure, there is enjoyment, sustained participation, concentrated effort and increased user attention.
Most textual interfaces for the written word are devoid of emotional content in presentation of information. Where there is some allowance for emotional content, it is still primitive and user engineered. Learning the interface typically takes more effort than most users are able to muster. However, emotional content integrated with other content infuses users with energy they are striving to obtain through an interaction. Emotional content provides energy that the user can obtain and use in understanding and internalizing the message. It is the emotional and personal element that captures and holds the receiver's attention and is the mechanism used to immerse the user in order to reach its intended receiver or audience in its most complete form. There are currently limited ways of presenting emotional content in written word. That is because emotional content is filtered out in our current communication schemes. When users are able to embed some emotional content in a communication stream, the interaction is richer and the communication more satisfying. What is needed is a way to allow senders to embed their emotive content more easily inside their written transmissions.
Reading text requires concentration and effort. The maintenance of focus requires energy. An aspect of the invention is the infusion of emotional energy in conveying knowledge from others, Internet, and media space content to users. Thus, the integration of the media content with emotional content can provide a richer more complete form of communication. Emotional content can contain and convey the subliminal messages, which are vital to a user's interaction with others via technology. The addition of emotional content captures, maintains, and focuses a user's interest. Thus, if the emotional content comes through from the sender, the sender has a much purer higher fidelity communication mechanism. The receiver is then more likely to understand the communication, not just read it, hear it, or see it, but feel it as well.
Written media technology, although far reaching, to some extent acts as a damper or cushion for communication, as thoughts are expressed but emotional content is filtered out. It is filtered out in subtle ways. For example, written text has little in the way of mechanisms to express enthusiasm textually. An “!” is probably all we have in the ASCII set to show or accentuate a thought with excitement. What is need is a method for the enablement for transmission of emotive content in textual language, which can be used to overcome this technological impediment. What is needed is a way to “write” the emotive content adjacent to or within the text to make understanding more clear.
A major drawback in current emotive content capabilities in conventional Internet based web languages is that the ability to communicate emotive content is non-existent. This disadvantage is even more apparent in the case of email, Operating System interfaces, application interfaces, word processors etc. There is a need for conveying emotional content side by side with textual, visual and audio content. The non-verbal communication is filtered out in Web publishing, email, stored archives, etc. There is a need for users to have the option to reinsert emotive content into written word of all types, memo's, letters, book's, web publishing, email etc.
The expression of emotion in text is rarely tried except by writers and professionals with a large vocabulary and good writing skills. Even so, emotions and their associated magnitudes are rarely expressed textually or in writing for many other reasons. Current expression of emotive content and emotive intensity in written word are rarely used because of the difficulties involved. What is needed is a way to allow and to facilitate the insertion of emotions in the written word without regard to personal language expression and manipulation skills, vocabulary size or writing style. What is needed is a tool to aid users in the embedment of emotive content in text.
Checksum
The imperfect written word may contain ambiguities. These can cause problems in communication. Writing somebody a “thank you” note while verbally assaulting them in the written word leaves the sender and the receiver in a quandary. Sometimes one small word can change the meaning of a whole paragraph. Although follow-on messages with apologies and illuminating information can always come later to remedy this problem, this is often possible only with more work and only if irreparable damage has not been done. What is needed is a way to “clean up” ambiguities, so that there is little doubt as to what is really meant. A way to embed information, which can interpret and amplify the message, perhaps not unlike a checksum in digital coded transmission would be highly desirable to further qualify what is meant and to insure the integrity of the message is received in full at the receiver.
The issue of “mixed messages” arises when the emotive content is contrary to the carrier content. For example, nodding one's head “no” all the while saying “yes”, or claiming that one is happy in a depressed tone of voice. These are examples of communication with mixed messages. Once a mixed message is discovered, typically the emotive content is given more weight than the carried text message. At times, the emotive content can resolve ambiguities in the carrier message. This is one of the “purifying or cleansing” phenomena associated with emotive content present in a message. There is a need to allow for emotive content to be carried in all elements of communication technology to improve its integrity and fidelity of communication.
It would be appreciated that what is needed is a novel system that will enable a user to recognize and discern the intended truth about a statement that might otherwise be ambiguous.
Decisions and Judgment
Emotional content in decision-making is critical. Most of us have heard the story of Solomon in judging the dispute over which woman was the true mother in a child custody dispute. He devised a test. The judgment was a decree to cut the child in half so that each woman could share equally. Although the judgment appeared an equitable solution in light of the lack of evidence pointing to the true mother, the real message was not to be understood by the false mother. The emotional content of the replies from each woman told Solomon who was the true mother. The true mother would give the child up rather than have it injured. Thus, methods to convey emotive content may be needed to provide discernment and to solve critical issues of judgement.
Previous attempts to embed emotive content include; a very primitive set of “avatars” used in chat sessions, individuals using the public domain set of emocons generated from the ASCII character set, and special character techniques like placing in text in bold or “!!!!!”.
Emocons have been developed to alleviate some of the need to express emotive content. Emocons are limited to the ASCII character sets for construction, are used infrequently because of their complexity, require labor in placement, are not convenient and are cumbersome to use, need imagination to construct, and require user labor in finding a complete set for use at the necessary time. Furthermore, emocons to a large extent represent stereotypes and are more of an attempt at humor than an attempt to transmit emotive content. The foregoing generally is the full extent of attempts to embed face glyph like emotive content within text.
The avatar example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,731, is limited to the communication of gestures by an avatar in an on-line web chat session. These avatars represent the participants in the chat session.
Since chat is “live”, the avatar gestures are conveyed through animation. The animation can comprise gestures that are indicative of an emotion. U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,731 claims “a method for communicating a gesture by an avatar that represents a participant in an on-line chat session . . . .” Gestures are learned behavior and are limited to specific cultures, age groups and fads. Gestures differ widely from culture to culture, age group to age group, and are easily confused. Mostly, gestures comprise a shallow and narrow non-verbal means of communication often found in face-to-face small talk, not unlike which a chat session can offer. The user chooses a gesture or avatar, not an emotive state, and therefore this method is emotively imprecise. For these reasons, gestures can be very misleading and misrepresent the actual emotive state and intensity desired to be communicated. Gestures also fail to recognize cultural differences and are limited and cannot be applied as a standard. Further more, the gestures are animated via “a sequence of visual frames portraying different views to produce an animation of said avatar.” Although static frames rapidly displayed can be used in the embedment of emotive states and intensities, a dynamic approach is presented wherein for a given emotive state and intensity needed for embedment, a glyph can be generated dynamically from embedded identifiers and delimiters. The avatar reference, U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,731, also does not consider nor allow for emotive intensity or the fluctuation thereof, which is critical in the transmission of emotive content, as this provides the “ups and downs” of true emotional patterns in communication.
What is needed is a method which can provide for the user selection of an emotive state and emotive intensity, which are mapable to a face glyph. In contrast, U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,731 merely allows selection of a glyph. What is also needed is a method for selection of text to be associated with face glyphs. In contrast, U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,731 only allows for the display of the avatar in a separate window not connected immediately to any text in particular. These deficiencies in U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,731 make it unable to address the problem of unambiguous communication of emotive content or to offer a solution. What is needed is a novel way to be able to embed precise emotive content into a communication stream and to be able to likewise decode this content without ambiguity.
Although technology to facilitate writing, delivering and publishing has advanced greatly, ways have not been developed to allow for and facilitate the embedding of emotional content, emotive state or emotive intensity into email, computer, inter-computer, and web textual communication using a full spectrum multi media scheme to embed emotive content. Some emotive content in written word has crept in but has been limited to the words that contain and carry feelings and some small smatterings at basic expression with “!”, and repeated “!!!!!” for emphasis. These are not what is presented here, albeit can be useful in attaining our goal, the embedding and facilitation of embedding emotive indicators or emotive content into text. Although words can and are used, they are largely inadequate in filling the needs mentioned above.
A Stitch in Time
There is also a need for synchronization of any emotive embedment mechanisms with each other and with the associated text. Synchronization is an issue with any combined mode of communication i.e. text and voice, voice and visual, visual and text, visual and voice and text. However, the emotional content is not time based, but event based. The functional relationship between emotion content and these three primary elements of communication technology are not necessarily a function of time. An event can trigger emotional response, which would “leak” into one or more modes of communication independent of time. The relationship between modes may even seem or appear random, which at times makes it difficult sometimes to understand the message. Since some modes are completely missing in most communication this adds to the burden of deciphering the emotive content for the receiver. This indicates that emotive content can be “inserted” at anytime before the message is transmitted. Moreover, although emotions are a real time phenomena, emotive content can be remembered and embedded at a later time. It is important to note that a textual message composed at some time can have the emotive portion embedded at some later time and vice versa. Many times the emotion comes first, followed by the writing. A method to compose the emotive content first followed by the text may for some, prove to be as good a way as any to compose a message, especially one “from the heart.”
Rod Serling on his popular TV “Twilight Zone” series started every show with the monologue “you are entering not only the dimension of sight and of sound, but of mind . . . .” We have all long ago entered into the dimension of heart, the dimension of soul. We have mastered the dimensions of sight, visual, and sound, audio, but have yet to tap the dimension of heart, and soul in our communication save through the use of the arts. Heart and soul are the missing dimensions in our modern communication. It's understanding has been delayed and underplayed perhaps because of cultural bias. These dimensions are present in all out art forms, yet conspicuously absent from our written communication. Yet the very essence of communication is carried by the dimensions of heart, mind and soul as well as the text or substance. One hesitates to call the text portion the substance, because that may not be the true substance, only our currently accepted written communication. Written communication is becoming an all pervasive method of interfacing with one another be it over the Internet, email, electronic memos, web publishing, or word processing output. What is needed is a new method to enable more expressive ways of communicating with the written word in the context of modern media and communication technology.